Alberta
On Friday, Alberta’s energy minister hailed their largest solar project. On Sunday, it was producing 10.9% at noon
This was the opening splash for a video clip posted by the Alberta energy minister on social media. Two days later, its power output at noon was barely 11 per cent. YouTube/Canadian Energy Centre
From PipelineOnline.ca
Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
And wind was doing even worse
Even though Alberta’s build-out of 38 wind farms and 36 solar farms have resulted in an enormous growth of nameplate power generating capacity, the reality was far from the advertised on Sunday, according to data from the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).
Despite the noon hour being defined as the sun being at its highest point in the sky, Alberta’s grid-scale solar facilities were having a tough day on Oct. 22. At 11:53 a.m., solar was producing 152 megawatts out of an installed base of 1,292 megawatts. That was 11.8 per cent of capacity. On a good day, that number is closer to 1,000 megawatts around noon.
Power generation in Alberta at 11:53 a.m. on Oct. 22. All numbers are in megawatts, MC is maximum capacity, and TNG is total net to grid. Alberta Electric System Operator
It wasn’t hard to figure out why solar hand tanked. A belt of heavy clouds, visible from Environment and Climate Change Canada satellite imagery, blanketed the principle solar power production region of southern Alberta.
Heavy clouds covered southern Alberta at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. Environment and Climate Change Canada
Travers, the largest solar facility in Canada with a rated capacity of 465 megawatts and having cost $700 million, was producing 51 megawatts a few minutes before noon. That was 10.9 per cent. Ironically, Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean had posted on LinkedIn on Oct. 20, “Did you know Alberta is home to Canada’s largest solar farm? Once we set clear rules around land use, reclamation and transmission, we’ll get back to work leading Canada and the world on renewable electricity. I’m proud of our energy workers. Check out this incredible clip 👇”
That 22 second video clip was originally posted by the Canadian Energy Centre, the Alberta government’s “war room,” whose mission is to set the record straight, as it were. “The Canadian Energy Centre’s mandate is to promote Canada as the supplier of choice for the world’s growing demand for responsibly produced energy,” says the Centre’s mandate.
Wind peters out
And wind power production was having an even worse day, with wind power plummeting as the morning turned into afternoon. By that time, wind was generating just 67 megawatts out of an installed based of 3,853 megawatts. That’s just 1.7 per cent of nameplate capacity.
So at that moment, combined wind and solar were producing 219 megawatts out of a nameplate capacity of 5,145, or 4.3 per cent of capacity.
Alberta’s final remaining coal-fired power facility was producing 802 of 820 megawatts of nameplate capacity, or 97.8 per cent. And its power output was 3.7 times the total output of all grid-scale wind and solar across Alberta, from 36 solar farms and 38 wind facilities, composed of hundreds of turbines and costing billions of dollars. As noted above, Travers, alone, cost $700 million and covers 3,330 acres with 1.3 million solar panels.
That last remaining coal plant, the Genesee Power Station, will soon be converted to natural gas, meaning an end to coal-fired power generation in Alberta – a province whose coal reserves run from Edmonton southwest to the BC and US borders.
The wind situation stayed much the same throughout the afternoon, and by 4:18, solar had dropped to 69 megawatts and wind was just 83 megawatts.
Wind generation in Alberta at 11:53 a.m. on Oct. 22. Twenty-four of 38 wind farms were producing exactly zero power at that moment. All numbers are in megawatts, MC is maximum capacity, and TNG is total net to grid. Alberta Electric System Operator
And near the supper hour, X bot account @ReliableAB noted AESO data showing wind was producing 86 megawatts and solar was producing 28 megawatts. At that moment, fossil fuels, principally natural gas, accounted 94.3 per cent of Alberta’s electricity. Alberta was getting 345 megawatts of power from imports, and batteries were contributing zero megawatts.
At this moment 94.3% of Alberta's electricity is being produced by fossil fuels. Wind is at 2.2% of capacity and producing 0.9% of total generation, while solar is at 2.2% of capacity and producing 0.29% of total generation. At the same time we are importing 345 MW or 3% pic.twitter.com/3gCrbqKvaI
— Reliable AB Energy (@ReliableAB) October 22, 2023
That 94.3 per cent is significant, because the federal government’s clean electricity regulations will require “unabated” fossil fuel power generation to shut down by 2035, with the exception that unabated natural gas generation could be used for up to 450 hours per year, per generator. As Premier Danielle Smith has pointed out, those hours would have been used up by the end of January in the calendar year of 2023, meaning by this time of year, Alberta’s grid, if those regulations were followed to the letter, would effectively be in almost total blackout. And to compound the situation, not only does the federal government expect provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan to replace all that power generation in 11 years, two months and nine days, but also be on the path of increasing total power generation by a factor of 2.5x in 26 years, two months and nine days.
Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
From LifeSiteNews
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.
“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.
“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”
Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.
The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”
It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”
Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”
Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.
About the proposed law, Smith said that her government believes it is “vitally important to preserve the time” kids have as a “youth.” She added that she believes this is so kids can “gain sufficient amount of knowledge, experience, and perspective so that you can fully understand who you are, who you want to be and what opportunities you may want to have as an adult before making permanent life-altering decisions related to your body.”
While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”
This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.
Alberta
Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest
From LifeSiteNews
Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.
An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.
On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.
“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.
Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.
“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”
After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.
Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.
He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.
In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”
However, defence lawyer Sarah Miller pointed out that that Pawlowski’s sermon was protected under freedom of speech, an argument that Krinke quickly dismissed.
“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.
Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.
Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.
The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.
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